so let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars
by girlinashipwreck
Summary: clara/eleven one shot; the TARDIS crashes at one of Clara's dream destinations; "Before I met you, all I wanted was a fun spring break in the Florida sunshine." Clara cocked an eyebrow at him. "Not everyone can vacation on Europa, you know."


All Clara had to say about the matter was that _no_, it was not her fault that they crashed.

She simply pressed the exact button he told her to and pulled the lever as instructed. It was not her fault that _somehow_ the TARDIS still wasn't fond of her. She wasn't lying when she said it looked at her funny. And she was almost certain it was trying to rearrange the halls outside her room in order to get her lost for good.

The Doctor, however, didn't believe her.

"So then, where are we?" Clara's head popped up on the other side of the console as the Doctor shook out the ringing in his ears. He grabbed the handle on the screen, tugging it down so he could see it from where the crash had thrown him to the floor.

"Well, it's 2013."

Clara frowned. "So we're back where I started? That's no fun."

"No, no… not England." The Doctor stood, tugging his waistcoat and making sure his watch was still safely tucked away in his pocket. Clara took the opportunity to tidy herself as well, making sure her dress hadn't flipped up during the crash.

"So… where are we?" She circled the console quickly. "Care to share?"

The Doctor tilted the screen to her. "Daytona Beach, Florida. March 15, 2013."

Clara blinked at the screen a few times before she began to smile. "We're at Daytona Beach? In March?" She was already running to the TARDIS doors. The Doctor chased after her hesitantly.

"That's what I just said!" Clara stopped, whipping around suddenly as she held the door handles behind her back. The Doctor had to skid to a stop to avoid colliding with her. In order to keep fuzzy feelings to a bare minimum, he had been trying to touch her as little as possible. It was quite difficult.

"Do you know what this means?"

"Senior citizens? Sunburns? Disney World?"

"Disney World is in Orlando, you goof." Clara rolled her eyes at him and pushed the doors open, turning as the sun cut into the control room. A bit of sand tumbled past the threshold and Clara stepped out with a grin. They had landed right on the beach.

"It's spring break!"

The Doctor groaned, stepping out just in time for a nearby game of beach volleyball to lose their serve and collide their ball with the Doctor's temple. Clara let out a bubbly laugh and grabbed his shoulders, immediately kissing the spot before spinning around to look at the throngs of people enjoying the sunshine.

"I've always wanted to go on spring break in Florida!" She put her hands on her hips, unable to stop smiling before turning back to him. "Maybe the TARDIS is on my side after all."

"Spring break? Seriously?" The Doctor rubbed his hands together, already dreading the permanent layer of sand that was going to stick to the TARDIS floor. "Why not… the French Revolution? Or maybe the Lunar Festival on Europa, you know it's really a lovely time—"

"_Before_ I met you, dummy." She almost reached out and put her hands on his shoulders again but stopped herself, instead opting to fold them over her chest. "Before I met you, all I wanted was a fun spring break in the Florida sunshine." Clara cocked an eyebrow at him. "Not everyone can vacation on Europa, you know."

The Doctor's upper lip curled but he acquiesced, rubbing the back of his neck. Clara could say she wanted to see the sewers of medieval England and he would probably take her there just to see her smile.

As it turned out, they couldn't leave spring break behind if they wanted to. The TARDIS had sprung a leak somewhere and some kind of gas was spilling into the control room and it made everything smell like a weird berry petrol. The Doctor attributed it to some fuel malfunction and said that the particle accelerator needed a rest. "You're getting along in years, old girl." He coughed around the smoke, patting the console. Clara pulled a face to tease him. It was decided they would find other accommodations for a day or two, at least until the TARDIS had time to rest.

"This is _not_ what I had in mind, Clara." The Doctor anxiously adjusted his vest, having left his suit coat in the TARDIS at Clara's insistence. If he wore it, she assured him he would sweat to death in a second. Clara dropped her haphazardly-packed overnight bag onto the double bed and threw the curtains open with a flourish. The light streamed in, along with a good view of the ice machine and the motel's tiny pool just one floor down. She grinned.

"Are you kidding? It's perfect!" She turned as she clasped her hands together and beamed up at him. "Besides, I'm not the one who wanted a _free _room with my all-access-pass." She flicked his vest pocket with her index finger, letting it _thunk_ against the psychic paper he had tucked away there just minutes after waving it in front of man in the Hawaiian shirt at the front desk. The Doctor tugged at his vest again in indignation.

"Never complain about getting anything for free! That should be a rule," he nodded and clasped his hands behind his back, taking a step with his gangling legs. "I did think it would be bigger, though."

Clara turned from where she was examining the tiny bathroom. "We'll have to share the bed. If that's alright with you…"

"Of course it is! Love a double bed." Without taking his shoes off, the Doctor stepped up onto the plastic-looking comforter, bouncing a few times. "It's like… camping."

"Have you ever _been_ camping?" She let out a laugh, walking back onto the thread-bare carpet.

"Yes, I have! Don't looked so surprised. " He wagged a finger at her, stepping off the bed. "Now tell me… what does one _do _on spring break?"

After quite a struggle that included a firm smack on the arm and a little bit of pouting, she convinced him to change. Now, standing at the edge of the beach in a flamboyant pair of swim trunks Clara flirted off one of their very inebriated new neighbors, he looked less than enthused. Clara herself had managed to find a bathing suit (not one from the 19th century) in the closet as she packed her bag. She clutched her makeshift cover up around her, something she was almost certain was some kind of Asian robe. Together, they looked an anachronistic mess. But at least he wasn't about to go out onto the beach in suit pants.

Clara spread her towel out on the sand as the Doctor skeptically surveyed the surroundings. "Are there always this many people out here?"

She smirked, tightening her ponytail before letting it flop to the side. "It's the beach! Now set out your towel." Clara reached over to help him, shaking out the bath towel so it lay flat on the sand next to hers. By the time he had turned back, she had whipped off her cover up to expose the plain black bikini she had been hiding underneath. The Doctor let out a surprised cough.

"Was that in the TARDIS?" He grabbed at the robe, trying to hold it up in front of her bare stomach as he looked around to see if anyone on the beach had seen her. Clara rolled her eyes, pushing his hands away and sitting down on her towel.

"_Yes_, it was." The sun was in her eyes as she turned to look up at him, squeezing one eye shut against the glare but opening the other so she could see him self-consciously covering his nipples with both hands. "Maybe it belonged to one of your girlfriends—"

He lifted a finger, quickly settling onto his towel beside her. "Not my girlfriends."

Clara just smirked, leaning back on her elbows as she looked across the beach. The Doctor sat cross legged next to her and she could feel him relax a little. It was still new, the two of them, but it was there. Like they had known each other so long but still so short at the same time. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. This whole time, they had been doing what made him comfortable. Saving worlds, rescuing innocent humans, solving a ghost story, holding the hand of a scared little girl; that was what he did every day. And now, stuck here on earth in something entirely human and (frankly) traditionally _fun_, he didn't seem to know how to conduct himself. Out here on the beach, no one suspected his two hearts or his twelve hundred years.

Maybe that was exactly what he needed.

Clara adjusted her bikini top and the Doctor pretended not to notice. "Have you ever been in the ocean?"

He scoffed. "Twelve hundred years and you don't think I've ever been in an ocean?"

"Not just any ocean, _this_ ocean." She gave him a look. "Not some alien ocean filled with… I don't know. Green goo."

"Actually the oceans Faltar are filled with—"

"Oh my god, just come on…" By the time the Doctor's sentence stammered to a stop she had already taken his hand and was pulling him towards the water. He tugged back hesitantly but the sight of Clara dipping her toes in and turning back to look up at him as the wind caught her hair made each of his hearts skip a beat simultaneously. "You scared?"

"Is that a dare, Oswald?"

Her laugh sounded like whipped cream straight out of the bottle as the turned her back to him and waded into the surf.

"Isn't everything?"

That was all it took. If she wanted to be on spring break, he could be on spring break too. The Doctor surged after her and she let out a squeal, running into the waves. One crashed around them as he scooped her up, carrying her deeper into the shallows of the Atlantic Ocean. Clara laughed again and when she turned her face towards him, she was looking at his clavicle and the swoop of where his neck connected with his shoulder. She swallowed and felt that familiar but still alien heartbeat as he held her. After a moment he realized the proximity and set her down in the water. In the ocean, they were alone save for a few globs of people drinking and treading water yards away. Another wave rolled over them and Clara almost lost her balance until he grabbed her waist.

"Didn't you ever go on spring break in university?"

She was a bit surprised at the question. The Doctor asked her many questions, some over and over. They rung in her head with an eerie déjà vu and made her dizzy and scared. But this question was simple and… domestic.

"No, I'm always studying…" Clara shrugged a shoulder simply and pushed salty wet strands of hair off her cheeks. His fingers brushed one off her collarbone absentmindedly and for a moment she wished he'd let his fingers linger there a while longer. "I have a scholarship… back at school." She pursed her lips. "My dad would argue spring break gets in the way of scholarships."

"Oh, but running away with a time lord doesn't?" He cracked a smile at her and in response, Clara swept her hand across the surface of the ocean and splashed him.

"You promised I could be back anytime I wanted!" She moved to splash him again and he caught her wrist, pushing his wet hair off his forehead as he laughed.

"That promise won't hold if you keep splashing me like that, missy!"

Clara gasped in feigned shock. "Missy! Did you just call me _missy_?" He backed away with a laugh, holding up his hands defensively.

"I take it back, I take it back!" Her hands were on his wrist and he lifted her up out of the water a little and she could feel his eyes on her body. She let go, sliding back into the water until it was up to her chin and it hit her. This was fun. She was having fun, on her own with this man. She hadn't had fun since her mum died, true fun where she wasn't thinking of her father or where her next paycheck was coming from or the family she was looking after. All those nights she spent studying for uni, dreaming of spring break. For her spring break meant carelessness, a trait she had never learned. And yet here she was, traveled here by extraterrestrial technology and a twelve hundred year old alien at the helm of all of it.

In one word, you could probably describe it as irresponsible.

But Clara Oswald, having never done a single irresponsible thing in her entire life, couldn't care less. Maybe irresponsible wasn't the right word. Spontaneous. Impulsive? Impulsive was good. Impulsive felt right. Impulsive felt like the right word as she looked up at him standing in the ocean with her and licked salt off her lips. The Doctor was looking down at her with that expression she had seen clouding his face, one that knit his eyebrows together and made him look at her like a complete stranger. Clara's breath hitched a little as her mind cleared and suddenly he was cupping her cheek.

"When was the last time you had fun, Clara?"

"I'm having fun right now."

That made him smile, which in turn made her feel safer almost instantly. His eyes betrayed him slightly as they glanced down at her bare skin for the hundredth time that day. "What's one thing you always wanted to do on spring break?"

The bar was crowded and loud but the Doctor looked more comfortable to be back in his button up and vest, fob watch safely tucked in his pocket. Clara elbowed her tiny frame to the bar and the Doctor followed, apologizing left and right as they bumped through the crowd. She pressed up against the bar, her hands on the edge as she leaned over, yelling above the pumping bass line.

"How can we get drinks?!"

"What?!"

She leaned in more, yelling in his ear. "I _said_, how can we get free drinks? We're skint!" When she pulled back he was smiling cockily at her, his hair dangling in front of his eyes. In one motion, the psychic paper was out of his pocket and in his hand, being waved over the bar.

"Spring break quality spot check! I'm going to need two of… whatever that blue and orange thing is!" The bartender quickly leaned down as Clara tried to contain her laughter, nodding to him seriously when he set two tall and curvy glasses on the bar, striped with some orange and blue concoction. The Doctor thanked him and the bartender yelled something over the music about hoping for a good review from the board. He got a thumbs up in response and when he turned to help another patron, Clara could no longer hold in her laughter. She picked at the sliver of pineapple hugging the rim of her glass as she kept laughing.

"That has to be against some intergalactic law!"

He shrugged at her, picking up his glass and examining it closely. She could see his fingers twitch for the sonic but in the crowded bar he wasn't dense enough to pull it out. Clara dipped a finger in the whipped cream and looked around at the décor. Flimsy surfboards and paper lanterns. How entirely perfect.

"Do you go to places like this with your friends at university?" The Doctor was struggling with the volume of the reggae music coming over the speakers and took a sip of his drink, getting whipped cream on his nose before making a face. He spat whatever sip he had taken back into his glass and set it down. Clara sipped hers slowly as she grinned at him.

"Never! I'm more of a bookstore kind of girl."

"Bookstores at ten o'clock at night?"

Clara nodded seriously, almost a third of the way through her frozen drink. "I thought you of all people would be knowledgeable of the bookstore scene."

The Doctor was examining the fruit slice on his drink. "Are you saying I don't know how to party?"

She raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth before he plucked her pineapple slice off her drink and popped it in her mouth. By the time she had chewed and swallowed and tossed the rind away, he was on the dance floor.

For a while, she let him enjoy himself and really make a space in the crowd for what appeared to be a dance similar to a giraffe doing the hula. Clara was sucking at the dregs of her drink when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Body shot?"

She whipped around, still holding the empty glass in her hand to see a shirtless lug of a guy leaning over her, clearly drunk. "Excuse me?"

"Are you doing the body shots that are going around? 'Cause you sure got the—"

"Clara! Who's this?"

The glass almost slipped out of her hand as she looked up to see a sweaty and out of breath Doctor flinging his arm across her shoulders and squishing her into his chest. Her cheek landed against the fabric of his vest and she looked up at him, eyes wide. He was giving the shirtless lug a once over and looked rather unhappy. The Doctor looked down at her as Shirtless spoke up.

"Sorry dude, we were just talking… is this your boyfriend?" Shirtless looked skeptical of the skinny man in the misplaced button down and pressed suit pants awkwardly squeezing the girl in a bikini and cover up. Clara didn't know how to respond.

"Uh… He's—"

"Boyfriend, yes! Certainly. Boyfriend, that's me. Isn't that right… smoochykins?"

Clara practically clapped her hand over her own face. Shirtless looked confused to say the least.

"So I guess you're gonna be the one wanting to do body shots off of her, huh?"

The Doctor patted her head and nodded firmly. "Oh yes, definitely. We do those all the time, don't we Clara?" Now she was glaring at him, trying to shake her head without Shirtless seeing but he was already beckoning the scantily clad shot girl over. The Doctor grinned at his spring break finesse before looking down at the tray of lime green shots. "What's that?"

"They're _shots_… baby." Clara pursed her lips, widening her eyes and nodding to him. The Doctor blinked and she could practically feel Shirtless about to crack his knuckles. She realized she probably slurped that drink down too quickly because now her head was spinning.

"Bro, do you not know how to do body shots?" This frat boy was grinning stupidly and the shot girl was starting to look impatient. Maybe it would be better if they just left. Clara reached for the Doctor's arm but he was waving quickly and reaching for the psychic paper.

"_Bro_, I happen to be the creator of the body shot, thank you very much." Shirtless blinked in awe and reached out to shake the Doctor's hand, the shot girl managing to wiggle the shot glass into Clara's cleavage no matter how loudly she insisted they were leaving. When the Doctor pulled back and saw the glass, he looked puzzled. Shirtless raised his fist, garnering the attention of every single spring breaker in the place.

"Listen _up_! This dude invented the body shot!" The crowd erupted with loud cheers and applause, a few girls pushing their way to the front of the crowd that had gathered around them. Clara was turning bright red. The Doctor still looked bewildered as to what was going on. "And he's gonna do a body shot… off his hot girlfriend!" Shirtless grabbed Clara's hand and raised it above her head, almost spilling the green contents of the shot glass down the front of her chest.

The crowd started chanting. _Body shot. Body shot_. The Doctor looked down at her and shook his head once to the right ever so slightly. She nodded back at him, directing her eyes down to where the glass was resting snugly. The Doctor's eyes widened in realization before he looked around. The chanting was growing louder and Clara's heart was pounding for reasons she wanted to attribute to the alcohol but she knew better. In a split second his mouth was on chest and she felt the heat of his breath in her cleavage. She prayed for her heart to slow for just that moment but before she knew it he tossed his head back, the glass between his lips. His arms lifted over his head and the crowd erupted. Clara was still staring at him as she heard The Black Keys come rolling over the speakers.

_I'm telling you to be ready, my dear_.

Clara stumbled against him as they got the door to their room open. The body shot had led to several more body shots which led to many drinks bought for them by Shirtless and his identical-seeming friends. Each one thanked the Doctor for his valuable contribution to society and hugged Clara for clearly inspiring this innovation. As the Doctor said as she clung to him on the walk home, they could always go back and invent the body shot later.

Back in the room, away from the cheesy bar fixtures and the frat boys, Clara collapsed down onto the bed and grabbed the edge, feeling dizzy again. The Doctor stood at the window, one hand against the glass. She looked up at him, unsure if he had ever actually been tipsy before. Her lips were dry and she wet them, her heart starting to pound again. The tension was beginning to crack in a familiar way but not familiar with him. She opened her mouth to say she could sleep in the tub tonight if he wanted but something completely different came out. "Thank you."

He turned from the glass and she could see a few buttons of his shirt had popped open and his vest hung at his sides, almost falling off one shoulder. Clara felt small looking up at him, her head swimming. They had never been alone like this. The TARDIS had known what she was doing, chaperoning them.

"What are you thanking me for?"

She lifted a hand to wave it around at the room and almost tipped over. "For all of this. For bringing me here."

The Doctor walked over and pulled at the thighs of his suit pants before sitting down next to her. "You're the one who crashed the TARDIS here, Clara."

She let out a laugh and pushed at him and he chuckled, catching her hands easily and suddenly she was leaning against him and he was laying back. She blinked.

"I can sleep—"

"No."

Her breath caught at the suddenness of his answer and he seemed embarrassed when he realized it too. He pushed his hair out of his face with his hand that wasn't holding her smaller ones to his chest. "Sleep in here with me."

Clara nodded, her eyes searching his face for anything she could hold onto. Anything that could tell her she shouldn't feel this way, this safe, this cared for. Everything in the back of her head was screaming she shouldn't. She shouldn't feel safe running off with a stranger and she shouldn't feel protected by this man holding her so simply. His thumb rubbed over the back of her own thumb and she looked down to watch, her hair falling in her face. The Doctor pushed it out of the way gently and then his lips were on hers.

It was too recognizable when he kissed her and she felt that same déjà vu wash over her but instead of making her pull away in fear, it made her lean in. She parted her lips and he put a hand on the back of her neck, still holding her to his chest. Somehow she knew she had kissed him before.

Clara got his shirt off without letting her mouth leave hers and he flipped them, wrapping his long arm around her waist and lifting her up. The knots on either side of her bikini bottoms unraveled with just a tug of his fingers and his suit pants were opening as she grabbed at his waist. He kissed her like no one had ever kissed her before, with fury and understanding and deftness that made her feel him everywhere and all around her. The cover up fell open around her hips as he lifted her knees up and put a hand on the headboard. Her hands cupped his face as they started to move together, panting and gasping all at once.

Clara's nails dug into his face as she watched his eyes. They locked with hers before looking down to where their bodies met, his hips moving with force and rhythm that matched his heartbeat. Her mouth fell open as she struggled to take deep breaths, letting her eyes open and close as her back arched. Clara's toes curled and before she knew what she was doing, she pushed him onto his back. The Doctor's hands settled around her hips and flexed, easily moving up to meet her motions. Her hands grabbed at his shoulders and she felt herself shudder at the look in his eyes, clouded and dark and powerful with weight. She kissed him again, closing her eyes tightly as her body rose to the edge. Clara was panting against his lips and holding his face in her hands as they came together, shivering alone in that motel room at Daytona Beach.

Afterwards, they lay on the bed over the ugly tropical print comforter and held hands. They both looked up at the stucco ceiling, imaging the night sky just beyond it. It was a long time before the Doctor spoke.

"I'd never been to spring break either."

Clara turned her head and looked over at him, her hair splayed out on the pillow above her. Her hand squeezed his. "Did they have spring break when you were a boy?"

The Doctor didn't answer. Instead he rolled over onto his side and opened his arms. Clara slid inside easily and he closed his embrace around her. They both pretended to sleep while still thinking about the answer to Clara's question.


End file.
